Episode 8: Green Lantern is the Blindfolded Fool
It's December 4th 2008 and you are authorized to listen to this podcaston up to two additional computers Official Description Idle Thumbs U.S. returns from vacation fists a'swingin, battering you senseless with tales of lives reconsidered (and rewound), friends (lists) lost, and having to sit and watch someone else really suck (at your favorite game). Games Discussed Brothers in Arms iPhone , Fieldrunners , Tony Hawk 10 , Mortal Kombat vs. D.C. Universe , Braid , The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess , Grand Theft Auto IV PC Other Games Mentioned Galcon , LittleBigPlanet , Fallout 3 Synopsis The Thumbs begin by explaining how horrible their previous podcast was and how much more awesome this episode is already. Jake then regales the Thumbs with a tale of fifth-graders walking around the Telltale Games offices, as it was the reason he was late to recording the podcast. Chris then explains how he visited his aunt and uncle who run a school which teaches Latin, claiming they each have "PhDs and stuff," which then leads to a mentioning of www.vigivigivigi.com, a redirect to Idle Thumbs that contains some Renaissance Era music and a sweet crest. Chris then laments how he gave his aunt and uncle some Idle Thumbs business cards which was a terrible idea (note: it is not a terrible idea, it is in fact an awesome idea.) Nick then talks about Brothers in Arms iPhone which "is not terrible, for horrible things." Nick gave it a 4/6. The Thumbs then talk about the iPhone way too much, then they talk about GFW Online too much, which leads into a conversation about GTA4 PC, which Nick claims is broken unless DotNet 3.5 is installed, because who wouldn't have DotNet 3.5? The podcast quickly spirals out of control when Fallout 3 is mentioned. Chris explains that his questgivers have committed suicide due to neglect, which leads into a discussion of Animal Crossing: Minstrel Show, where Nintendo sent out a cartridge of AC: Wild World where, as soon as you load it, sheep would start calling you ñ*ggah. From this, the Thumbs delve into the realm of pixelated dongs, Massives shit, good segs and jerk-off hand motions. Discussing a recent Activision press summit, Chris reminisces about the good times playing Tony Hawk in his garage, being a pile of human waste. Jake brings up Twilight Princess as being similar to this, and the Thumbs laugh at themselves at the image of obese, Cheeto hands gamers who enjoy making off-putting hand motions. After a musical interlude, Jake discusses pretension, stemming from an editorial on www.snappygamer.com. After a long and unusually thoughtful discussion, the Thumbs quickly return to their usual antics: snaps are produced. Jake brings up that he has actually been playing a video game, Braid the video game. The Thumbs become stuck in an endless time vortex, repeating the same conversation loop, until Jake, snapping out of his hypnosis, throws a container of Left 4 Dead mints at Chris, who used the power to slow done time to catch it between his fingers. The conversation gets rather serious at that point, at which point they actually talk about the video game.Reader mail and Kaboomzzz's LittleBigPlanet level is discussed. Ultra-Boost flavors contest are discussed; suggestions would be read in a later episode. PancakeHumper asks at the ending of the episode what the Thumbs' goty.cx is, to which the unanimous answer, Far Cry 2, is declared many times over a span of fifteen seconds. Notes *The episode title is taken from the musical interlude, entitled 'Sincerely These Nuts.' Memorable Quotes *"We pulled that shit out of our ass and buried it deep in the ground." - Chris *"Shit, shit, fuck, balls, poop. SHIT FROM THE ASS." - Chris *"The Wizard is Wizard." - Chris *"Rockstar just got rocked!" - Nick *"The ol', the ol' Eight-Bit Cock." - Jake *"Seg! that's a great seg! I'm gonna seg the shit outta you guys!" - Chris *"Yeah! A real skateboard, yeah!" - Nick *Jake: "Do you ever wish you could rewind time?" Chris: "I heard you can do that in Braid." Nick: "Jesus Christ!" *"We're going segless, here." - Jake YouTube Timestamps *00:35 — Intro - Take two for Episode 8 *02:49 — 5th Graders Visit Telltale - And Witness some nice basic general animation *06:19 — Chris game business cards to kids - It was a terrible, terrible idea *07:40 — More Redirects! - vigivigivigi.com and explode-mode.com *10:29 — Brothers in Arms (iPhone) - Controls *12:29 — Fieldrunners - And Tap Defense *13:16 — iPhone Games - They should have more trial versions *13:39 — Galcon - Little green triangles vs. little orange triangles *14:48 — The App Store - Business model and development platform *16:00 — The App Store - Certification *18:17 — The Seg - Segue into some sweet stuff *18:44 — Games for Windows Live - Opening up Internet Explorer windows *19:50 — Games for Windows Live - The Thing That is Dumb is This: no friends lists *20:53 — Grand Theft Auto IV - PC issues *24:04 — Console to PC Ports - Bugs or emergent gameplay? *25:26 — Animal Crossing: Wild World - The racist sheep *27:53 — Activision - And their bold new corporate strategy *29:33 — Tony Hawk - Ilde Thumbs invents the Kinect *30:58 — Tony Hawk - Slumped over on the couch *31:21 — Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Absorbed into the chair with your hands at your sides *33:53 — Tony Hawk - The classic image of the gamer *34:51 — Sincerely, These Nuts (song) *37:04 — Games Journalism - Snappy Gamer says it's too pretentious *39:58 — Games Journalism - How reviews, industry news, and criticism interact *41:05 — Games Journalism - "I just want to have fun and shoot fun!" *42:37 — Games Journalism - Expectations for checklist reviews *43:19 — Gamers - Weirdly protective of what they like *44:41 — Mirror's Edge - Assumptions about adherence to genre conventions *45:37 — Rouge Leaders - The Lucasarts art book *48:32 — Braid - Did you ever wish that you could turn back time? *50:07 — Braid - The game that teaches you how you screw up in video games *52:55 — Braid - Finally with the post-modern games *54:55 — LittleBigPlanet - Depth of field *56:05 — Contests - LittleBigPlanet levels and Ultra Boost flavors *58:03 — Reader Mail - Fallout 3 - Disappointing elements from world density to forced combat *1:03:34 — Reader Mail - Casting - Pods and improved spectral blade *1:04:00 — Reader Mail - Watching People Play Games - When it can be frustrating *1:05:34 — Reader Mail - Grim Fandango - Chris' savant (Stanford) friend in college *1:08:24 — Reader Mail - Adventure Games - Playing co-op *1:09:33 — Reader Mail - Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - Brute-forcing the last puzzle *1:12:01 — Reader Mail - Watching People Play Games - Going to your friend who had Nintendo's house *1:14:07 — Contests - Enter them and get the booby prize *1:15:08 — Outro - Far Cry 2